**4. The renaissance**

The Renaissance was a time of awakening and the religious ideology began to be questioned. The translations of the works of Aristotle and Pliny into Latin and the introduction of the printing press helped to spread the little knowledge accumulated until that time about natural history in the western world. For example, by 1500 about 12 editions of Aristotle's *Historia Animalium* and 39 of Pliny's *Historia Naturalis* had seen the light, which is evidence of the popularity of these works. During this age of discovery the finding of species that were never mentioned neither by Aristotle nor the Bible, opened up scientific curiosity about new creatures around the world. Thus, people once again began to seek new knowledge. However, in these times, naturalists were more compilers of information than investigators despite the fact that they were performing more dissections that in turn uncovered new taxonomic possibilities. Still, scientists relied on environmental aspects to classify animals. Collecting was a primary activity during this era (Alves 2010, p. 54).
